Warning, huge Mass Effect 3 spoilers ahead, for those who haven't played the
game yet.

It happened, pretty much as we predicted. BioWare and EA have released
the Extended Cut DLC for their sci-fi saga, in an attempt to appease swarms
of fans who were genuinely unhappy with the ending of Mass Effect 3. Although
we really applaud BioWare's even trying to address this complicated matter,
it still seems like they were trying to salvage a ship that's already sunk.

What happens in the world, must wind up on YouTube, so it's the same with the
Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut. Now, you have all of the endings already
uploaded on the popular video-sharing service and publications like Forbes
already analyzing the thing to right down to its core.

Did it work? Are the endings better now? Do they offer more closure? From what
we have gathered, probably not. Okay, how you find the ME story is probably
still a subjective matter. The DLC is most likely a useless attempt to please
outraged fans.

Here are the new/old endings (WARNING: Once again, the videos below cotain
major spoilers):

80% are probably just gonna watch the endings on youtube and be like ''Well OK Bioware...thanks for that, but You still fucked up the game, actually all of the games, BIG time with the shitty original ending'' I know I feel that way!

yeah, watched the vids.
i've replayed ME1 about 6 times. ME2 - 5 times. ME3 - 0, just the first time, no replays at all. why? because what's the point when you already know that it doesn't really matter what did you do in 2 previous instalments, and barely matters what did you do in the last one?

i totally understand bioware for trying to preserve "artistic integrity" (still, it shows that _art_ these days hit rock bottom), but it's still pretty much "we fucked up but we're not going to admit that so we released those 20 additional minutes of video to gag the fanbase".

is there some closure? yeah, SOME. 3 times the same videos of extended closure, only with different colors - 5 minutes each... laughable.

watched 3 of them on youtube, i think they were all decently done, MUCH better than the original ending. loved the game either way, thought both ME2&3 were not as good as the original to me, bring back my Mako bitches.

I can't speak to the content, but at least they answered a number of the questions/glaringly obvious holes that were in the original (Like, for example, what the hell was up with the fleet of homeless aliens now floating around Earth - in the extended endings it at least makes it clear that they bugged out and the Normandy was the last, or one of the last, to leave - hence why it got caught in the blast wave). That said, though, the Control ending was a bit too shiny happy for my tastes and the Refusal ending - as much as I like the idea of telling glow blue brat to shove it up his digital ass - seems kind of pointless.

The ending is still about space magic. Joker still picks up the crew, it's not like there's war going on, there's no need for highly trained soldiers on earth. And Earth and galaxy is still existing after the super-nova level explosion of all the mass relays. And the refusal ending is kinda weird and just a pandering to fans.

That heart wrenching scene of Garrus putting plaque on a wall was probably supposed to make me forget the bad endings. And they put 'Commander Shepard' and not the name. That's just lazy. Although 'Booty Shepard', probably would've spoiled the moment.

But the best thing is that, indoctrination theory still stands, because Shepard still wakes up at the end of destroy ending. It has no other explanation or reason to be there.
So it's the best ARG ever. And I congratulate Bioware for that.

I don't think I've commented on Mass Effect 3's endings and such here on ActionTrip, so I'll start by saying I never understood what everyone was so angry about in the first place and what everyone expected.

Were the endings great? No, of course not. Have I seen far worse? Sure have. Is BioWare the first developer to state a game has several endings where really it's just a slightly altered cutscene here and there over one main ending? Nope, nothing new.

The Mass Effect franchise gave me a solid 150 hour experience, give or take, per playthrough with a great interactive story despite it's many inconsistencies. I could take my Shepard and my experiences into each game and have in-game characters and events be slightly changed or commented on which is something no game has done before to my knoweldge, making for an even more unique experience.

And when Mass Effect 3 ended, cold hard reality hits: No matter how hard you struggle against impossible odds, the choices before you may not be the ones you want, bad things happen to good people, and not everything works out how you want. That's the reality of life.

The Extended Cut, with the exception of Hackett telling everyone to flee, added nothing that wasn't implied in the retail endings and while I have no issue with the content being released it's really unnecessary.

As for the indoctrination theory, the second I saw it I thought it was a fun theory but no more than that, and people are simply trying to rationalize things that aren't there.

Again, I really don't know what people were expecting from the ending and why everything always has to be so happy-cheery and wrapped up to a T with every loose end looked after.

I rather enjoyed the one new ending I watched. Definitely fixed some inconsistencies and provided more closure for the player. It fit a more epic ending the series deserved then what was previous put in by whoever fucking thought shitting on a cake was a good idea.

Bah, these extended cuts didn't change anything. It's the same bullshit, Bioware just made the pain last longer. I love Mass Effect, but this is fucking garbage! Bioware is dead to me now. I won't waste my money on anymore of their games.

It makes me sick because Bioware used to be the best in the business. Back when they actually cared about making good games. I still love their older games, and play them on a regular basis. Now they are nothing but greedy whores, doing everything EA wants. To heck with making good games, it's all about the $$$ now.